Planting Ramps in our Forest

There is something about the Spring forest that brings me a deep sense of joy and contentment. The days are growing longer. The air is warming. The trees are waking from their slumber. The songbirds are returning.

After the Winter, walking in the Spring woods seems to rejuvenate me as well.

It is in this temperate climate Spring forest that Ramps will grow.

These wild onions with strong garlic and leek undertones are true Spring ephemerals. They only shoot up in the early Spring forest, and they quickly depart as the trees’ canopy fills back in with new leaves to cover the forest floor in shadow.

When we moved to our farm in East Tennessee, Ramps were one of the plants I was hoping to find. Unfortunately, I have yet to come across a wild patch of them on our property.

I had been contemplating how to bring Ramps to our farm when an opportunity crossed my path.

My family and I recently had to travel to northern Indiana. We try to use our camper as much as possible, and we used it for this trip staying at a few different campgrounds. I spent many early mornings walking through the forests in and near the parks where we were staying, often with one of the kids who woke up early enough to join me.

The ephemeral Spring woodland where the ramps were growing.

There was a small forest bordering the property of one of the campgrounds. I recognized it as a special place as soon as I entered. Overhead were mature maple and beech trees with their young leaves just forming. There was an understory of flowering dogwood and pawpaw trees. Blanketing the moist ground were at least three different Trillium species all in flower, Solomon’s Seal (Polygonatum), Mayapples (Podophyllum peltatum), Wild Ginger (Asarum), multiple ferns, and… Ramps! Literally thousands of Ramps covered the floor of this Spring forest! Unfortunately, I didn’t take a photo of the areas with dense Ramp plants, but I did get the photo above where there were a lot more of the other Spring ephemerals.

Fresh Ramps!

I spoke with the owner of the campground, and he told me he owned this forest as well. He was unaware of the plants he had growing there, but he seemed very interested to learn what I had found. He also told me that I could harvest a few Ramps for myself. I did so, but very carefully. Trilliums are sensitive to disturbance, and they will usually die if any part of the plant is picked or damaged. Since many Trilliums are endangered, I chose to harvest Ramps that were not growing near the Trilliums. I carefully dug up the Ramps preserving as much of the roots as possible. I then pushed the soil back in place and replaced the forest detritus.

I decided to eat a few Ramps with breakfast, sauteed in butter with our free-range chicken eggs… amazing! I saved the rest to transplant.

I planted the Ramps (3) near Mayapples (2) and Pawpaw saplings (1).

We returned to Tennessee a few days later, and I knew exactly where to plant the Ramps. One small valley on our property has relatively moist soil. This is where our largest Pawpaw patch resides nestled under the overstory of hickory and oak. There are Mayapples, False Solomon’s Seal (Maianthemum racemosum), and ferns growing underneath. This environment best matched the location where I harvested the Ramps.

I won’t know until next Spring if the Ramps took to their new home. But I am excited and hopeful. If they do survive the transplant, it will probably be 3-5 years before I will feel comfortable with their establishment before I will harvest any.

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6 Comments

I now have some one to take over the 5 acre forest lot of this 100 year old farm. The land is mirror image of the developed part of the farm so it is easy to match plants that are well adapted on the farm to the developing land.in appropriate habitats. One of the first wil be lemon balm mint which has good mosquito repellent properties

Have taken two harvests from my patch of ramps in my apple orchard which were donated by a friend of a friend two years ago. They were delicious. Here in the southeast of England they seem to thrive, it is such a pity that they are not used . One day soon a celebrity chef will discover them, use them on a cooking show on TV, then people will pay vast amounts of money to dine out on them in style!

John– What an exciting find! I applaud your effort in establishing ramps. I purchased ramp plants and seed several years ago. The plants are alive but haven’t reproduced themselves yet. The seed even after stratification wasn’t successful. Like you, I have started may apple and paw paw too.

We transplanted some ramps from the wild a number of years ago. Site has good tree canopy but is a little drier than ideal. So the patch has filled in slowly. However, the plants have always been healthy and we’ve been getting small harvests each spring for three years now. Love our planting.

I have long believed monoculture farmers should devote expandable corners of their farm to the establishment of Permaculture plants appropriate for climate, soil, and geographical region. Of particular importance is a specific sequence of plant guild successions that lead to strong and rapid ecosystem advancement. As Permaculture crop variety becomes more acceptable in local markets, the size of the corners grow.